Saturday, August 30, 2008

Parsing Sarah Palin

I think Sarah Palin expects John McCain to die in office. Here's what she said when she was introduced as his running mate:
"It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."
As we know, Hillary Clinton was running for the Presidential nomination, and her comment referred to the glass ceiling which has thus far prevented women from attaining the office of President. Thus, if Palin intends to shatter that glass ceiling and become President herself, when she is in fact running for the office of Vice President, it can only mean that she plans to do so over John McCain's dead body.

I also found it interesting that through her statement, Palin clearly positioned herself as far weaker than the pioneering Clinton. She seems to imply--rightly--that she herself wouldn't have the ability to break through the glass ceiling had Clinton not first rendered it structurally unstable.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So great to see you back in the states and glad there was no national disaster during your absence this time. I can't imagine the estrangement you felt after 9/11 was worse than you experienced in high school.

Anonymous said...

wow. I never thought of it that way, but, as usual, you are sound and persuasive. I've been cringing at the idea of Palin (& McCain) riding on Hillary's apparently dispensable coattails, and this really brought it all home